By Brandon Moseley
Alabama Political Reporter
Alabama State Senator and Sixth District Congressional Candidate Scott Beason is still attempting to convince Republican Party Primary voters that incumbent Congressman Spencer Bachus (R) is ethically challenged and that he (Beason) would represent them better in the Congress.
In a written statement today Senator Beason said, “Alabama Rep. Spencer Bachus frequently serves as the public face for why Americans are so upset about congressional insider trading. His stock trades, based upon knowledge from high-level government meetings and not available to the general public, have been the focus of Peter Schweitzer’s recent book “Throw Them all Out”, a “60 Minutes” report and numerous articles in the mainstream press.”
Senator Beason’s senior campaign advisor Chris Brown said, “The contrast between Scott and his opponent couldn’t be more clear.” “Beason has received national attention for rooting out political corruption in Alabama while Bachus currently serves as the national poster child for crony capitalism.”
Meanwhile The Campaign for Primary Accountability a Super Pac that is targeting long term incumbents is running a television ad attacking Rep. Spencer Bachus, saying: “Alabama Congressman Spencer Bachus is a debt-raising, status-quo politician. He voted to pass a $700 billion bank bailout after receiving $3.7 million from financial industries. Now Bachus is under investigation for profiting from his elected position in Congress. Go to the polls in Alabama on March 13th, vote Republican and send Bachus packing.”
Congressman Bachus’s campaign however asserts his innocence. To that end the campaign has released a prepared statement by Roderick M. Hills and Harvey Pitt (both past chairmen of the Securities and Exchange Commission). They say that the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) “has functioned as a tool capable of pernicious partisan abuse.” They argue that “the legally dispositive fact that stock trades based on the general direction of our economy cannot constitute “insider trading,” and then attack the review for leaking details to the public: “the immediate question is how details of a review required to be kept confidential became grist for public rumor mills.” They say that OCE has breached its own strict confidentiality policy and has broken its own rules about not taking any action during an election. They write that the “months after the pending election, this group eventually will reach the only permissible conclusion — that here, no violations of law could have occurred.” The two former SEC Chairmen say that the allegations made against Rep. Bachus “are laughable to serious students of insider trading law.”
Senator Beason is running for Congress in Alabama’s Sixth Congressional District. Congressman Spencer Bachus is seeking his eleventh term in the United States Congress. Also running for the seat are Shelby County Tea Party Activist and veteran Al Mickle and Blount County Probate Judge David Standridge.
The Republican Primary is March 13th and the winner will face a Democratic opponent in the November 6th General Election. Birmingham Attorney William “Bill” Barnes is facing retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Penny Huggins Bailey in the March 13th Democratic Party Primary.
To read the Beason campaign press release:
http://scottbeason.com/category/press-release/
To read the Bachus campaign defense
